3 or 6-month reporting by companies?

SC looks at reviewing performance update period by companies

PETALING JAYA: Should companies drop their quarterly reporting regime and just update shareholders on a half-yearly basis? That question has been posed by the Securities Commission (SC) under its recently released Corporate Governance Blueprint 2011.

According to the SC blueprint, some commentators argue that a quarter may not provide a long-enough period “to draw conclusions about a company's financial position or performance.”

“There are concerns that quarterly reporting promotes a short-term view and are therefore less reliable than half-yearly reporting and that the shorter time period lends itself to manipulative reporting, particularly given that these results need not be audited by an external auditor,” it said.

But Minority Shareholder Watchdog Group chief executive officer Rita Benoy Bushon said she was supportive of Malaysian-listed companies reporting their financial results on a quarterly basis.